Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire New Mexico

I move here two years ago to retire. I wanted Idaho, but the wife wanted someplace warm. I like it. Good people, good weather, lots of BLM land to hunt, and fairly cheap cost of living. But I've never seen a state so soft on crime in my life. It's ridiculous. And tags are hard to come by also...

There's good and bad things about New Mexico.

I grew up in Albuquerque, left after I graduated high school, and haven't moved back. My parents have lived there since 1980.

Here are some things that I can think of off the top of head:

Good: Weather, lots of public land, good food, lots of outdoor activities, traffic.

Bad: Crime, low paying jobs, welfare state, corrupt government, racial tensions, people aren't very friendly...compared to Texas, big game permits are hard to get for public land, dry-so dry that it really limits hunting, long drives to go fishing.

[quote=Whiptail]

I would agree with most of what you wrote although I must say in all honesty, I've found the people here very friendly so far. I lived in Texas back in the late 90's, early 2000's and hated it. I'd take NM over Texas any day of the week. Worse God Damned drivers I've ever seen...

I never lived in Las Cruces so I'll take your word for it. Texas is far from nirvana but I've found enough good things to keep me here for quite a while. Traffic is terrible here but people mostly drive friendly and I don't see a lot of road rage but it's getting worse with all the transplants moving in.

I figure the closer to the border, the worse it gets. Driving in El Paso is like the movie Death Race 2000 or Mad Max. People there are freaking lunatics. I try to stay as far from that place as possible.

Lived outta my car for six months in Southern New Mexico, January through August in 1980. Longhair, NY plates.

I did day labor to survive while applying for the Peace Corps. Friggin' amazingly friendly people back then, never had any problems at all, even from the Cops. I have good friends there from back then that I still have today, thirty miles east of Ruidoso.

If they have ever locked their house or their cars I ain't aware of it.

I will say there's quite a few more people in that area now though.

Go there for the 4th, people shoot off fireworks all over, especially along Hwy 54 north of town You'll be right in the middle of a firefight with bottle rockets bouncing off of your vehicle and bushes burning off in the desert. If it was anything BUT desert out there the whole place woulda been ashes long ago.

Then go join the crowd parked along the Trans-Mountain Road across the Franklins to watch the fireworks, you can see where Juarez on the other side of the world is because they use yellow street lights.

Thanks all.

Seems a lot of my guesses about the place, both good & bad, are close.


Probably should just get out there & see it instead of asking or talking about it.

Wife has family in Taos. Grandpap raised sheep.

It's basically Mexico with out the beach. But yes, the food was killer.

You probably don't want to retire in NM. It's getting way too crowded.

Espanola is a wonderful place for a white boy to spend time and retire!

I visit NM every year. From a visitor's perspective I like it. Tons of public land to play on. Very few congested population centers. Santa Fe is pretty cool. From a retirees perspective, I think it has a good bit to offer. Places like Raton and Las Vegas are gographically beautiful if a bit aged and worn. Sitting right where the plains meet to Rockies they have the best of both worlds. Small older houses there are affordable if you want to live in the city. Finding affordable acreage anywhere near a town can be a challenge.

city-data.com has good, easy to search crime stats. usclimatedata.com has good weather data.

I'm a white boy that was born in Espanola...but I left when I graduated high school and never considered retiring there.

I wonder if the Texans have a hard time drawing tags in Texas?

I hope not!

If they put any more tags on there, the license won't fit in my back pocket!

Ever noticed the 'turkey' looks like dinosaur? I knew you guys had some cool chit to hunt in TX but that's a new one!

Wonder what the wetback tags will look like?

That's all well and good if you have a place to hunt. That was the biggest problem I had when I lived there. Unless you had the money for a lease - which I didn't have that much back then - You couldn't set foot off pavement cause somebody would be threatening to shoot you if you tried to hunt there.

Eastern, particularly Curry County South is a good place to live for a Conservative outdoorsman that likes hunting. That area is Much like the Texas Panhandle culturally but with public hunting land. Some of the Transient oilfield culture in Lea, Eddy and Chavez can be rough so if you raise kids in those areas, they better know how to fight, whether boy or girl. The former KPMG controller in my office and myself both grew up in SE NM and we both separately have shared stories about how we learned to deal with issues, whether with the offspring of Northern Mexico cartel or oilfield ex cons. Oddly, the movie, "No Country for Old Men" slightly reminded me of there. Though, the NM Permian and contiguous areas have the jobs.

I do miss the hunting and being a short drive to the mountains, but many of my hunting buddies from those days are either rich, in prison or ex cons today. I don't have much experience with the Western side, but much of what is North of Clovis across the state is pretty progressive Demicrat (modern "Liberal" but as one with Libertarian leanings, I hate what politics has done to that classic, noble word).

Or Mexican-American or Mexican enough either. Catholics vote dimocrap, as a rule. Welfare and govt assistance is a big factor, not abortion.